Black Friday
by EarlyMorningWriter
Summary: Thanksgiving comes to Saint Louis shortly after the crew of the Nathan James returns from Greece. Will the intrepid crew find a way to have feast in the middle of the famine or should they just skip straight to Black Friday?
1. Chapter 1 - Can it

**Can it**

"Hey there buddy. Stay where Daddy can see you." Two year old Frankie shot Danny a devilish grin but he nodded and returned to poking through the boxes in their dusty basement. He wouldn't have brought him down into the basement at all but Mrs. Foster had her bridge club that day and Kara was at the new Whitehouse rushing to help President Oliver craft a statement about the Nathan James' recent activities in Greece for his Thanksgiving address. With winter closing in, Oliver was going to make an appeal for people to ration and share as much as possible over the holidays. Genetically modified crops were being planted everywhere in the southern hemisphere but it was 68 days from planting to harvest for even the quickest crops like beans. That meant they needed to make do until Martin Luther King day at the earliest. And the people in the summer countries would eat what they needed before exporting too.

That was why he was in the basement today. The Nathan James would be in dry dock for months and they had been released for some much needed R&R. But Simpson-Slattery was looking for all hands on deck building greenhouses around the St Louis area to provide greens and other cold weather crops. He could have spent the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas enjoying his use or lose vacation time but every time he looked at Frankie gnawing in the "cookies" Kara's mother made him out of ground barley and honey he thought about the kids that he'd seen around the world with even less. And so here he was mucking around in the freezing cold basement looking for box of tools he was sure they had dumped down here when they collected the stuff from their apartments almost two years ago. He was tired and still sore form his injuries and his patience was growing thin.

Moving to the next pile of boxes he lifted the top one off and heard a metallic clank. That was promising. He opened the lid with a cloud of dust. Reaching in he grabbed the canvas bag. Bold black letters labeled it. "Benzo". Frankie-the-elder had always taken care of the little repairs around their old apartment so all the tools were really his.

The sound of Frankie-the=younger's loud squeals echoed off the low ceiling and brick walls giving him a headache. "Shhhh…ugarplums!" He amended quickly, because that time Frankie repeated his favorite four letter word had resulted in quite the scolding from his wife. He looked around for the sandy curls but didn't see him anywhere. "Frankie!"

More giggles greeted his ears but he still didn't see him. "Daddy! Oh Daddy! I found snacks!"

His stomach dropped like he had just jumped out of a plane. "Frankie where are you!" Visions of trying to explain to Kara why he'd let him eat a wire nut or lead paint chips or whatever he'd found brought his pulse to a boil. "Frankie, come show Daddy!"

More giggles. "Too big!" He followed the sound of his voice. It sounded like it was coming from the corner where the old boiler sat useless beside the new tankless water heater. Oh God! There was probably rat poison behind there. Frantic, he shoved aside boxes until he could look behind all the pipes that filled the brick wall behind the equipment. But there was no kid. "Frankie, where the heck are you?"

"You said heck. I'm telling Mommy." His voice sounded like it was right next to Danny! "I'm in Halsey's room." Halsey's room? He turned to study the wall. How the heck had the kid gotten behind it? It was dim in the basement but he could just make out the faint outline of a door that had been bricked up at some point.

He nearly jumped ten feet when he felt a tug on his pant leg. Looking down he found his son, covered in dust and grime, grinning like a mad man. "Look!"

Ignoring the can in the kid's hand he reached down and caught him under the arms and dragged him the rest of the way out of the wall. "How did you find that?" Once he bent down he could see an opening, a few feet square, under the layers of pipes. "And what's in there?" He suppressed a shudder as he wiped a mess of cobwebs from the boy's hair.

Frankie giggled and held up a dusty can. "Look! We can feed Halsey now." Poor Halsey had been reduced to dry kibble these days.

Danny rubbed his thumb over the front label revealing a familiar blue wave logo. "Cranberry sauce?" The use by date on the label was only six months out of date. "Frankie where did you find this, for real?"

Frankie pointed to the wall. "There. Halsey guard it." He ducked his face into Danny's shoulder. "Don't tell Mommy. I runned way."

He patted the kid as they headed for the stairs. "Don't worry buddy. If you promise me not to go in there again, I won't let Mommy get mad." Kara was going to love this!

A few hours later Frankie was washed and in bed and Danny brought out the can. "So, I found this in the basement today. It looks like the previous owner may have had some food stored down there."

Kara looked up from where she was loading the dishwasher, he dark hair swinging over her shoulders in a glossy curtain. "Seriously? Was there anything else still good to eat?"

Not wanting to reveal Frankie's adventure he hedged. "I don't know. I need to get a flashlight to get a better look. Want to come down there with me after your mother gets home?"

Kara handed him the damp dishcloth. "Go down in the creepy old basement at night with only a flashlight. Gee, I thought you'd never ask."


	2. Chapter 2 - Ore-Ida then

**Ore-Ida then**

Two days later Captain Garnett shimmied backwards out the hole in the Green's basement wall. "Well, it's a real room. And it's full of cans. Actually, it's just a part of your basement. My guess is that the plumber who put in the new water heater threw up the wall so that he could minimize how much new pipe he needed to tie into the pre-existing hot water pipes coming down in this corner." She shined her flashlight on the joints were shiny and clean new pipes met the old green copper coming out of the subfloor above their heads. "You can certainly take these bricks out with no structural impact but why don't you use the trap door?

"Trap door?" Kara peered at her as if she had just grown two heads. "There's a trap door in there?"

"Yep, my guess is that it comes up right into the kitchen. You got a rug or something covering it up?"

Kara tried to remember but moving in and getting situated in the house was all such a blur given how early Frankie had been born and then how quickly everything with Allison Shaw had ramped up. "I don't really know. Let's go look."

As they trudged back up the basement steps into the weak November sun she checked the sky. "I think it will snow tonight. The air has that feel."

Andrea sighed. "I haven't seen snow since we were in the Arctic and I'd like to keep it that way. As soon as my meetings in St. Louis are done, I'm headed back to Pascagoula. Famine or no famine, I'm still on the hook to finish at least one of the ships by the end of the year. Chandler wants to Christen one at the Annapolis convocation this May."

Kara sighed. "No rest for the weary, huh? I guess even though we feel relieved to know there will be food in the spring, the hard work isn't over."

Andrea shook her head as she passed back into the warmth of the house. "If I've learned anything these last few years, it's that it's never over. There will always be inequality so there will always be strife. But this is what we do, we push on, doing the best we can."

Kara reached for the kettle to heat up some water. She could really go for a cup of tea and company. Some days she just wasn't sure how much she wanted to keep on keeping on. It probably didn't help that she had hardly had a break since before they left Rota.

Andrea was already eying the floor. She bent down and rubbed a finger along the base of one fat leg holding up the central island. "You know, this thing isn't fixed to the floor like cabinets. It's a freestanding piece of furniture."

"Really?" Kara had a vague memory of dropping bits while cooking and losing them but she'd never thought to move it. "I can't lift much right now, but maybe we can push it out of the way?"

She felt Andrea's sharp eyes on her but the other woman just shrugged. "Yeah, I bet there's plastic disks under those feet. Let's give it a good shove." The two women aligned themselves on one side of the table. "One, two, three." The legs squeaked against the bold black and white tiles of the kitchen floor but it did slide away as they both put their weight into it.

"Well, would you look at that. What did I tell you?" Andrea toed the folded metal that marked the edges of the trapdoor within the tiled floor. "These old houses were often built with cold storage in the basement. That way you didn't have to dig in the snow for a root cellar."

Kara blanched at the crumbles of old food, hair, and other dirt marking out the footprint of the kitchen island as the thought of rotting food and mold made her stomach roll. "Before we touch that, let me get the broom." She hustled to the broom closet, hoping that looking away would calm her traitorous digestive system.

Andrea took the broom from her hands when she returned. "Let me do that. You pour the tea."

Kara reached for the kettle, at once both relived and embarrassed. "Andrea, you've already done me a favor by crawling around my basement floor. You really don't have to clean too."

But the engineer just continued to sweep. "Nonsense. I am already in coveralls and who knows when you'll need to run upstairs to get my beautiful honorary nephew. Besides, every now and then I miss doing ordinary domestic stuff. I pretty much live in my office these days."

Kara knew better than to argue once Andrea had decreed how something should be. Besides, Andrea still outranked her. She rolled open the trash can and then proceeded to pour them two cups of tea.

Once finished Andrea set the broom in the corner. "Let's see what we have here." She yanked on a circular pull tab and the door scraped open. A steep ladder led down into nothingness. "Hand me that flashlight. I'll go down and then shine the light up at you." Kara did as she was told, a slight feeling of unrest teasing at her senses as Andrea's bright red knot of hair disappeared beneath the floor. "Yep, this is the same place. Come on down."

Cold air enveloped Kara's ankles as she carefully followed. The dusty basement windows let in a little brownish light illuminating rows of cans, jars, and bottles on the shelf. There were even a few cookie tins. Andrea was brushing away the dust on the cans. "Looks like whoever lived here before you guys actually used this regularly. Most of this is still edible."

Kara nodded, stunned at the amount of food in the strange basement pantry. They'd had only MRE's and carefully rationed boxes of fresh food since they returned from Greece. So far there was milk and fish but even that was getting prohibitively expensive. Sometimes she worried that Frankie's growth would be stunted by the lack of variety and fresh produce. But today she laughed when she saw the case of cranberry sauce under the window. "Someone here must have loved Thanksgiving. We tried to get Frankie to eat some after he found that can the other day, but he didn't like it."

"Try mixing it with one of these mandarin orange cans." Andrea pointed to another neat stack. "My mother made cranberry salad that way and everyone used to love it, especially Lilly." Andrea's eyes misted a little at the mention of her daughter. "I miss a real Thanksgiving feast. Would you mind if I took one can of each as my payment for chipping in today?"

Kara turned in the center of the little room, counting up the number of cans as an idea formed in her head. "You can have it, but on one condition."

Andrea eyed her warily. "Go on."

"Have Thanksgiving dinner with us. Let's say 1600, on Thanksgiving day."

Andrea grinned before gesturing for Kara to proceed her up the ladder. "That's only two days away! But yes, I would love to have dinner with your family. Can I bring something?"

Kara laughed. "You can bring anything you want, as long as it isn't canned cranberry sauce."

"Good. I have a case of contraband potato flakes that Bacon gave me as a thank you for fixing his panini maker when the hinge broke. Even if I was willing to have them every night, I still couldn't eat them all before they expired."

"Why potato flakes?"

Andrea's smile turned a little sad. "They were Lilly's favorite food. I have them every now and then when I'm feeling blue. But the holidays are especially hard and I think friendly faces will do me more good than carbs will."

Kara looked over to where the baby monitor flashed away, silently alerting her to the fact that Frankie was peacefully sleeping in his bed. "Sure bring them. I'll set aside a pot and you can come early and make them here. Frankie loves them too."


	3. Chapter 3 - Oh deer

Sasha watched as Ashley shuffled into the kitchen, eyes focused on her phone, fuzzy jammies dragging on the floor. "Hey kiddo." She tried to sound upbeat but this whole babysitting thing was still new and she couldn't imagine a scenario where having a kid refuse to even acknowledge her presence for most of Thanksgiving vacation could be construed as a good thing.

"Hey." She didn't even look up but that one word was more than Sasha had come to expect.

Just three weeks ago she'd spent a great long weekend with Tom and the kids in Greece, meeting their caretakers and getting them used to the idea that she and their dad might be a couple sometime in the future. But now Tom was gone to Washington and she was supposed to be getting to know them better but it was impossible if the teen wouldn't cooperate.

Ashley sighed and slumped into a kitchen chair. "When is my dad getting back again?"

Sasha recognized it for what it was, an opening. "Friday. He really wishes he could make it for Thanksgiving dinner but there aren't any flights coming this way until Friday."

"What thing at the Green's?" Sam joined his sister at the table. "We haven't had Thanksgiving for two years. Two years without turkey Sasha. I hope this thing at the Green's involves turkey."

She hated to disappoint them but it was byo-MRE. "Sorry buddy, no turkey. Maybe you'll get lucky and get turkey nuggets in your rations. We're going to get together, play games, and be thankful for each other because Thanksgiving is about being thankful for whatever you have, even if you wish you had something else, you know?"

Sam hung his head. "I know."

Ashley finally set down her phone. "Dad says maybe there will be turkey next year Sam. And he asked me to figure out what we have that we can bring to share." She turned pleading eyes on Sasha. Ah ha! Now that she needed Sasha she was all smiley. But she would be happy to oblige her if it meant interacting with the girl. "All we have are MREs and everyone else has those too. I don't know what we could bring."

She wanted to help Ashley so badly, to be her hero. But she wasn't much of a cook herself. "I don't know kiddo. I wish we could just slip out to the store and find something, but right now the closest thing to a store is the Ration Center."

Ashley brightened. "Well let's go see if we can trade some of our saved snacks for more turkey nuggets."

Sasha recalled the dreary storefront outside Tom's neighborhood that was their assigned pickup spot. All they did there was take people's tickets and then hand them a sealed box. "We can go pick up next week's boxes, but they are prepacked. There is no way of knowing what we'll get."

"I wish we lived on a farm." Sam said. "Maybe we could go find a farm and see if we can buy a turkey. Or at least a chicken."

Ashley leaned down and whispered in his ear. "She'll never go for that."

The urge to be their hero returned full force. "We could go to the distribution center, where they pack the boxes. I know the guy who runs the place. He's retired Navy. Best logistics guy I ever knew." If Batson was working today he wouldn't be afraid to tell her she was asking the impossible. But then again, how many times had he managed to get her something after he said it was impossible?

They were out the door and up the stairs to their rooms before Sasha could collect her wits and call them back to explain that the Ration Center was an hour outside of the city and probably closed to day so not to get their hopes up. Minutes later the kids raced back through the kitchen to the garage door. "Come on Sasha. We need you to drive."

What they needed was a distraction and she supposed a midweek drive was as good as anything. She grabbed her keys from the counter and followed them.

Fifteen minutes later they were parked by the side of a country road off the freeway west of St. Louis. Rolling farm fields were dotted with farm equipment and small stands of trees but the fields were painfully useless with a few of last year's corn stalks tilting at crazy angles among the wild grasses. "I can't believe you go all over the world but you're this bad at directions! Why couldn't we just take the highway?" Ashley huffed from the passenger seat.

Sasha hid a smile. "Ashley, it's the day before Thanksgiving. Traffic is miserable." She tried not to sound censorious but Ashley was just so touchy. She wondered if all teenaged girls were like that or if all the traumas and upheavals in the girl's life had made her extra sensitive.

"It's not fair you know!" She flounced back onto her seat, tossing her straight brown hair over her shoulders as she did. "If I had been living here instead of hiding in Greece for two years I'd have a driver's license already and I could just go wherever I wanted, on my own."

"Ashley, surely you don't think that your father is going to let you just take his car and drive wherever you want, when you want." Sasha knew she should just take the map, figure out how to get back on track, and drive on without engaging the girl but her argument troubled her too deeply to let it go. Did she plan to run away?

Ashely's big brown eyes flashed crossly. "Of course not, but at this rate I'll be the last girl in my class to have one. I hardly know anyone and then I need a ride to go everywhere like, like a baby!" She looked like she was almost ready to cry. "It sucks here! Dad promised me Sasha. He promised to take me driving over Thanksgiving vacation."

Ashley's cranky attitude over the last few days suddenly feel into place. The whole reason Sasha was the one staying with the kids was because Tom had been called away to Norfolk so suddenly. Given the fact that he hadn't said a word about what ever his urgent matter was really about, her sixth sense had been telling her all week that they would be back on the Nathan James heading toward a crisis very soon.

Sasha reached for the door handle. "Come on. I can't promise your dad is going to like this but what the heck, he'll be mad at me, not you." She came around to Ashely's side of the car and opened the door. "You drive, I'll navigate."

Ashley bounded out of the car and sprinted around the hood as if she was afraid Sasha would change her mind. "Really? Like I can drive on a real road?"

In her enthusiasm she looked 12, not 16 but Sasha stuck to her decision. What was the worse that could happen? There didn't seem to be much she could hit if she tried. There was just a long, nearly straight, gravel road trailing off in front of them for miles. "Can you stay on the road?"

"Yes…I think I can." Well that wasn't encouraging but Tom's sensible two year old SUV ought to be able to handle the dry ditches and brush at the edges of the fields if she happened to have a misshap.

"Well then let's get those practice hours in."

From the back seat the music of Sam's video game stopped. "Oh my God, I'm putting on two seat belts." He shimmied into the middle seat and used the belts from both sides to double protect himself.

Ashley made a show of adjusting the mirrors, sticking out her tongue when she could see Sam. To Sasha she said, "I did pass my written test with a perfect score."

"Ok, well start her up." Sasha grabbed the map and turned it to the correct orientation. "We need to go about two more miles this way and then we turn right and the place is another two miles off the highway."

They made it three miles before the mishap. Other than being a little slow, Ashley was doing well, a fact that Sasha tried to reiterate every two minutes or so in an effort to encourage her. Maybe this would be the thing that got her into the Chandler children's good graces. About two miles down the road a couple teenaged boys came tearing up behind them in a big red truck. "Just keep on going straight and let them pass you." Sasha advised. Ashley gripped the wheel tight with a stiff nod but she held nice and steady as they rushed by flinging gravel and leaving a cloud of dust in their wake.

"Showoffs." Ashley muttered under her breath.

"You can go a little faster if you want, but promise me you won't drive like that once you get your license. These are the kind of roads where people end up having stupid one car accidents all the time." Sasha hoped Ashley didn't resent the lecture too much and revert to her earlier mood.

To her delight, the girl turned a big toothy grin her way. "Seriously Sasha? With all the badass women I know, do you think I'm the kind of girl that is impressed by the stupid stuff boys do?" Sasha found herself grinning back. At least until a dark shape leapt into the middle of the road in front of them.

"Lookout!" Sam yelled from the backseat. To her credit, Ashley slammed on the brakes immediately and maintained control of the car as it skidded on the loose gravel road surface. Unfortunately, it was too late for the deer. With a sickening thump it disappeared from view under the front bumper.

At first Sasha just stared over the hood, hoping the deer would pop up and take off running, but after a few seconds ticked by she knew without even seeing it's condition that the deer was seriously hurt.

Ashley's whispered "What do we do?" broke her from her stunned silence.

"Turn off the car and we'll check it out." She heard Sam's seatbelt unclick behind her and mentally cringed wondering what kind of bloody mess they were going to find under the bumper. "Sam, stay here."

He responded to her command-voice like any reluctant lieutenant with a resigned "Yes Ma'am."

As she stepped out into the November afternoon she heard the truck that had passed them grind to a stop and begin reversing their way. Great, just what they needed, an audience.

Ashley's hands covered her gasp as she peaked around the corner of the hood. "Oh no! No, No!" tears began to stream down her face. "It's in pain!"

The deer was struggling to it's feet, one leg broken at a horrifying angle and a bloddy gash on it's rump. At best it would bleed to death. At worst it would hobble off into the scrub and die of infection in a few days. For once Sasha didn't even have a gun on her, just the kbar in her boot. She was about to tell Ashley to get back in the car, she'd take care of it, when three kids piled out of the red truck. The driver, a tall blond in a jean jacket and farm boots reached over the side of the bed and came out with a shotgun.

"Stand back ladies. The only thing to do is put it out of his misery."

"No! Ashley cried as the fool kid didn't even wait for them to move and instead fired right at Tom's car, completely missing but leaving a neat hole in the bumper.

The terrified deer managed to gain it's feet and leapt toward the field, heedless of it's broken leg. In a blink of an eye Sasha grabbed the gun from the kid and took aim as the deer made it about 100 yards away and then began to hobble. "Goddammit there's a kid in there!" She shouted as she took aim to neatly put the deer down with a shot between it's poor eyes, glazed with pain. But when she pulled the trigger nothing happened.

"Sorry Ma'am. If you and your kids can wait here, I live just up the road. I'll be back with more ammo in just a few minutes.

Ashley nodded, looking at the stupid kid like he was her savior. "Hurry! Can't you see he's in pain?"

"Uh, it's a she." Offered another one of the boys, sheepishly.

That only made Ashley cry harder. "Shit, shit, shit." Sasha shook her head as she dropped the gun on the ground. What a fiasco this little trip was turning out to be. She stomped out into the field ignoring the boys dumb comments as she withdrew her knife. The deer barely lifted it's head as it lay panting on the ground. "I'm so, so, sorry gentle one." She lifted it's head so she could put it put of it's misery with one slash.

Sighing, she cleaned her knife off on it's hide and then trudged back toward the car. The blond boy eyed her bloody hand nervously. "Uh, sorry about your car Ma'am. I just wanted didn't want it to suffer."

He looked to be about 17 or 18. She'd certainly worked with enough new recruits to know that with the right guidance most of the them could learn to rein in their impulsivity so she held in the raging tirade she wanted to unleash on him. Instead, she waved her hand toward the truck. "If you want to help, could you tie this thing on the roof for me?"

Ashley was staring at the large dent marring the front grill of his car. "Oh my God, Oh my God! Dad is never going to let me drive again!" She gulped back sobs.

Meanwhile Sam tumbled out of the backseat. "Holy cow! Did you see that Ashley? Sasha just killed that deer with her bare hands. Wait until I tell Willy and Krishawn about this!" He pulled out his phone and turned to Sasha. "I mean, dad always says you are more ruthless than him but I never believed it!"

The high schoolers eyes all focused on Sasha with new speculation in their eyes. "I asked you to stay in the car Sam."

"I know but it's all over now!" He came around the front and wrapped his arms around Aahley. "It's OK Ashley. Dad will understand." Ashley choked off one final sob and let Sam comfort her while Sasha's heart melted right there in the center of her chest as she looked at the kids, supporting each other. And suddenly she understood, even if she didn't agree with, the reasons Tom had left the Navy and retreated from the public eye.

She squared her shoulders. Now was not the time to get sappy. Instead she donned her best Mary Poppins face and used her working voice. "Ashley, Sam, we can worry about the car later. For now we all have jobs to do. Boys, you are going to go home and get me some rope to tie this thing onto the car. You got a shovel in that truck? I will go prepare the deer." One of them handed her a beat up metal shovel. Is was a square manure scooping kind but it would work for what she needed. "Ashley, while they are getting the rope, just take a quick drive down the road and make sure everything is working correctly. Sam, I need you to call Commander Green and RSVP for her Thanksgiving shindig tomorrow. Tell her it's not turkey, but we've got the main course covered."


	4. Chapter 4 - Casserole with the punches

**Casserole with the punches**

Danny didn't have to look up from where he was loading a lat bar to know that the heavy footsteps behind him belonged to the Burk brothers. The two big men showed up at 0800 hours every morning like clockwork, bickered through an entire workout, and then disappeared again. It was almost comical how alike they were but he wouldn't dare comment on it, lest the two team up on him to defend each other.

"Morning." Cam waved before grabbing awkwardly for a crutch before it could fall to the ground. Danny had to admire the stoic way he had accepted the loss of his lower leg and begun training his body to learn to walk again. He'd seen men take months before they ventured out of a wheelchair after similar injuries. Carleton nodded and took his usual bench to begin stretching.

"Hey, did you know your wife invited us over for Thanksgiving tomorrow?" Carleton asked as he began stretching. "She said to bring our favorite board game."

"Dude, I told you not to second guess it." Cam rolled his eyes into the gym's mirror. "Maybe her cooking has gotten better."

Danny grinned. Cooking was not Kara's forte. "All we're doing is heating up some cans we found in the basement while we hang out and play games. I think she can handle that. Just don't expect anything too fancy. But if you have something you want to bring to eat, just in case, that's cool."

Cam grunted as he leaned his crutches against the wall and began some kind of balance exercises. "Do you know if there were any canned green beans? What I wouldn't give for that casserole that Mama always made. Do you remember Carl? You know with the little crunchy onion things on it?"

"Ugh, You would like that. It doesn't count as a vegetable if you slather it in cheese and fried stuff you know."

Danny ducked his head to hide his smile as he answered. "There might have been a few cans of those. If you can round up some of those fried onions, my cocina es su cocina."

With a sigh Carleton nodded. "I might know where to get them. But don't tell anyone. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up."

"Yes!" Cam punched a fist in the air, wobbling on his good leg as he did. "Best news I've had in days."


	5. Chapter 5 - I yam what I yam

**I yam what I yam**

Wolf stuck his head out of the apartment door. One second he'd been trying to convince Azima that bringing beer to the Greens' Thanksgiving meal was enough and the next he'd heard her say "Be right back," and open the front door.

He looked up and down the long balcony of the apartment building and found her several doors down, rooting around in one of the decorative planters. "Ah ha!" She held up one of the long vines that spilled over the railing in a trail of green and purple leaves. "Do you like sweet potato?"

Confused he watched as she shook dirt off the tuber at the end of the vine. "Get me your biggest pot. With this many planters we can fill it to the brim!" Her knife flashed bright like her grin as she dug around in the planter again.

"Azima! We can't eat those. I know where you grew up things might be different, but those are decorative plants. People garden for a hobby here."

She paused, staring at him for a minute before throwing her head back and laughing. "Good one Mr. Wolf. I know it is a decorative garden. But why choose to starve when there is such bounty here for the taking? It will freeze soon and make them mushy and I cannot stand to see such waste. But do not worry yourself. I will leave the eye to regrow." She made a show of slicing off a sliver of potato and then reburying it so the vine hung over the edge once again. "The pot?" she prompted him with a wave of her knife.

He was halfway back to the door when she squealed with uncharacteristic girlishness. "Bring the scissors! Oh you foolish Americans! I found kale in here too!"


	6. Chapter 6 - Easy as apple pie

**Easy as apple pie**

Ray linked his hands together and held them out so Kat could use them for a boost onto the roof of the car. "Are you sure we're not going to get caught?"

"You're the expert at sneaking in and out of places. Do you honestly think this place has a ton of security?" The weight of her foot lifted off his hands and she turned to hold out a hand to help him up. Kat had spied a few apples in the road as they drove past the other day. She insisted this place had an apple tree hiding on the other side of the overgrown hedge and nothing he said would convince her they were wasting their time. If there was a tree in the backyard, surely someone had taken all the good fruits by now.

"Well I hope not." Honestly, he couldn't imagine that the creepy old house on the other side of the fence had any more elaborate security than the wrought iron spikes. The metal roof of his car flexed as they both stood up and reached for the limb of an overhanging tree. Once he had followed her onto the branch he scrambled along, trying not to look down. "I hope this branch can hold us."

"Are you afraid of heights Ray?" Her eyes sparkled as she held out a hand to pull him into the crook of the tree. Before he could even register the warm feeling of her body against his she was already stepping down to the next branch below. "Come on. I'm hoping we have time to explore inside before we have to go. He shuddered as he looked at the dark windows, some of them broken. That place was probably a deathtrap inside.

They dropped into the overgrown garden. As Kat led him around a moss covered brick path the dried stalks of forgotten plants rattled in the breeze and overgrown brambles snagged his pant legs. "This tree better have the best apples we've ever tasted or I'm never following you on one of your adventures again."

Kat reached back and grabbed his hand with a giggle. "Just wait. Once you taste my pie you'll be hooked for life. Trust me, my pie is something to be thankful for." The pie could taste like sawdust for all he cared. He just liked the sparkle in her eye. It had been too rare a sight since Sunshine's death about a month ago.

In seconds he had spun her around so her back was against an ancient oak tree. "We could just forget the pie and go home, where it is warm and cozy and you know, be thankful for other things."

Kat's laughter was replaced with a breathy sigh and as she looked up at him with those mossy green eyes that he loved. "Ray!" She protested. But the second her lashes fluttered down to her cheeks he seized the opportunity and placed his lips on hers. If there was anything to be thankful for this year, it was kissing Kathleen Nolan. The electric connection that flowed between them every time they touched stole his breath away. After a few seconds they reluctantly pulled apart, grinning at one another. "Come on. We can't go to Kara's empty handed." Kat gave him a little shove.

Sighing, he fell into step behind her again until she stopped short when she rounded the house into the backyard. "I knew it!"

Looking over her shoulder he saw that a craggy old apple tree filled the small space with crooked branches. Around it, a riot of plants, most topped with the dry remains of this year's blooms nodded in the light wind. Despite being November there were still a few bright spots like the pink climbing roses and a splashy yellow hawthorn and he was willing to bet that whoever had lived here had been an avid gardener. The ground underneath was covered in apples and a few yellow jackets hummed over the sweet smelling mess. Kat practically bounced with excitement. "I'll fill one bag with deadfalls and you can try to find some good ones on the branches." She pulled a few plastic grocery bags from her pocket and handed one to him.

With a sneaking suspicion he eyed the jumble of fruit on the ground. "What are you going to do with the those bruised ones? It only takes a few to make a pie, doesn't it?"

"Horses love apples Ray. We can't let all these go to waste."

He opened his bag. "Horses, of course we can't forget the horses." He could care less about horses, but if it made Kat happy, he'd pick up every damn apple from every damn branch.

Once their bags were full they took them back over near the car. Ray dragged a dilapidated park bench over to the trunk of the tree while Kat wedged the bags through the bars to set them on the ground near the car. He just barely managed to look away before she straightened and caught him admiring her backside. "Uh," he cleared his throat. "I think we can use this bench to get up to that branch there and then get back out."

"I agree, but don't you want to see inside?" He most definitly did not want to see inside. The house brought to mind black and white horror movies, the skeletons of old ladies in moldy lace collars, and spiders.

"I think we ought to get going. It will be dark soon and we still need to make the pie."

"Oh come on Ray!" She grabbed his hand and began tugging him toward the front porch. "I can't believe you are so chicken!"

"I'm not chicken. I just have a healthy sense of self preservation, unlike some people who always want to go in guns blazing."

"Fine, fine. We can come back another time." She began to climb onto the bench, her features twisted into a sullen scowl.

Ray hated that face. He'd seen it far too often over the last several weeks. "I'll be right back." He dashed back into the overgrown garden. Finding what he was looking for, he slipped a knife out of his pocket and cut one thick stem as he heard her feet thump onto the roof of his car.

"Come on! We have enough apples Ray." Now that he'd dashed her hopes of going inside the old creepy mansion her voice was all business.

He sheathed the knife and jogged back to the tree. Even with the bench for a boost he needed to use both hands to climb so he clamped his find in his teeth. He knew the moment she saw it by her squeal of laughter. "Oh my God I wish I had a picture of this!"

He dropped beside her on the roof of the car. "Please forgive me for being a chicken." He held out the rose. It was beautiful, long stemmed and bright pink, but he really only had eyes for her.

Sulky disappointment gone, she accepted his apology with a kiss heated his skin and his insides. "Come on Romeo. We have pies to bake."


	7. Chapter 7 - The Gobble-et Overflows

Kara looked over the crowd in her dining room with satisfaction. When she'd proposed this get together she had envisioned them using the board games to distract themselves from a disappointing meal of whatever they'd gotten in their ration boxes this week. But instead, her people had come up with an amazing feast.

Once the food was cleared away she thought people might leave but they had pulled the games back out and just kept on playing. Now her dining room table was the center of attention as Miller, his date "Daisy, a friend from my church", Wolf, and Azima faced off as the remaining Monopoly players.

Miller rolled the dice. "Yes!" He slid the thimble around the corner as an eleven allowed him to run the gauntlet of Boardwalk, and Azima's hotels and houses, without losing a penny. "That will be $200 please."

Cam counted out twenties from the bank. He'd been playing as the banker ever since Kara had to ban the Burk brothers from playing Chutes and Ladders with her son. "Really guys, the point is for Frankie to learn that following the rules is fun, not that you can argue over every little thing."

"But Kara, when the arrow is on the line you always round up."

"Seriously Cam, it's always round down." Carleton had countered. Frankie didn't have the patience for that kind of debate and instead picked up the spinner and ran from person to person asking them to spin and then squealing out nonsense numbers at the top of his lungs each time the arrow stopped.

Daisy rolled next. Kara guessed the shy blond was about twenty. She'd passed on the wine at dinner and stuck close to Miller's side all evening. She even tried to volunteer for dish duty before Alisha and Mejia jumped up and insisted that they ought to do it since they were the only two that hadn't brought food. With her roll of seven Daisy landed on St. Charles, which Wolf had loaded with real estate. "I'm sorry, I don't quite have enough." She frowned down at her small wad of money. "But I could throw in a house from Baltic Avenue."

Wolf surveyed his properties which were crowded with houses and hotels. "I'm afraid I can't even use another house Love."

Miller quickly counted out six twenties and handed them over. "Here, I'll cover you so you can stay in the game."

"Awwww, I think Miller has a crush." Kat and Ray dissolved into giggles.

"Ha, you're one to talk." Miller shot right back at the pair, who were cuddled up in the window seat whispering over a small sketchbook.

Danny caught Kara's eye over Frankie's now drooping shoulder. "As soon as he drops off, I vote we bring out the p-i-e."

"Oh yeah, I could really go for some dessert!" Miller piped up.

Frankie's head shot up, eyes bright again. "Is it time for dessert Daddy?"

Danny swatted Miller's shoulder. "Just for that we nominate you to share your serving with the kid." Everyone laughed as Miller's ears turned bright red.

Kara took pity on him and leaned down to Daisy. "Please don't get the wrong idea Daisy. Eric is really just too sweet for his own good." She squeezed Eric's shoulder. "Kat made us three pies so there is plenty to go around." She wheeled Frankie's high chair back out of the corner and patted the tray to indicate Danny could set him down.

After they sliced up the pie the reminiscing began. "Mmm, Kat this is good pie. You guys are too new to know, but Bacon used to make the best apple slab pie. But I think yours might be even better.

"Well, it is my Dad's recipe." She explained.

Sasha set down her plate with a satisfied smile. "Somehow it doesn't surprise me that your father could cook."

Kat's smile was a little wistful, and Kara caught the way Ray squeezed her shoulder. "He always said that the best way to make friends was to share a meal."

That set off several stories about old friends. "One year, when Cruz was doing one of his crazy cleanses, he ate the USO's vegetarian tofurkey." Carleton shook his head ruefully. "I swear he was sweating out garlic for weeks after."

Danny nodded toward the now sticky Frankie as his sleepy head almost dropped into his pie. "Think I can wash him up without waking him up?"

Debbie Foster appeared at his elbow with a wet cloth. "One time one of the sports teams Kara was on held a bake sale. She made half a dozen pies but tried to use wheat flour instead of white. They were as hard as rocks."

Kara chuckled. "Someone bought them anyway."

Her mother finished swiping the sleepy boy's face before she winked at Danny. "Your brothers bought every single one. I think they cleaned the pies out and used the aluminum pans for target practice!" Kara didn't mind one bit when everyone laughed. There was something real about letting the people you loved know your foibles and trusting them to accept you anyway.

"Think you can manage him?" She smiled as Danny easily lifted the boy onto his shoulder and began to haul him up the stairs. Just three weeks ago she had wondered if his injuries would be permanent, but since he'd promised her that he wouldn't over do it, she wouldn't fuss in front of their friends.

Kara saw Mike step out to the front porch and drop onto her porch swing by himself. Her heart ached for him. He'd been jovial and lighthearted throughout the meal. Lately he seemed more willing to cross the lines drawn by rank to joke around with the crew. Like when he'd insisted that if they weren't going to play poker they could at least make the games interesting by placing bets. He had $25 bucks riding on Miller right now. But he seemed to lose his steam as the evening had worn on and now he just looked beat. She knew the holidays must be especially tough without his family, the same way she always thought about the old times with her father and brothers at this time of year too. She ducked back into the kitchen and hit the button on the coffee maker, intending to take him a cup when it finished percolating.

A muffled thud from the direction of her pantry caught her ear. Confused, she tiptoed around the island and pressed her ear up to the door. "You could show Miller some mercy and not make him mortgage any more properties. This is the first time we've ever seen him with a girl and we want him to look good. Maybe we should let him win," A familiar Aussie voice exclaimed.

"Ha. He'll look better if he takes it like a man. Shows the girl what kind of balls he's got hiding under all that easy going exterior right from the start." Azima replied. "Besides, you love it when I go for the kill."

After a short growling noise the pantry grew quiet and it suddenly occurred to Kara that in her worry over Danny's injuries and Frankie's safety she'd missed a new social development in their group. She tiptoed back to the coffeepot and poured two cups, trying not to think about what could be going on in the room that stored all her carefully horded dry milk and peanut butter and other nutritious things to supplement Frankie's rations.

Sasha came into the kitchen with a grocery bag. "If you don't mind Kara, I'm going to take the kids home. Ashley is still pretty grumpy that Tom didn't make it and I want to give her time to call him tonight." She pulled a tupperware out of her bag. "But I'm still hopeful. I'll make him up a plate of leftovers, just in case."

Kara didn't quite understand Tom and Sasha's relationship yet but she didn't question the deep connection they had either. "Yeah, sure. There's tons of venison left. Everyone better take some home because I just need a little meat to make a stew, and a bone for Halsey."

After they packed up a few containers the two women returned to the dining room. "This really was a great idea." Sasha hugged Kara's shoulders. "Thanks for having me too Kara. After all that happened the last few months, in Greece and with James, I think I really needed something like this to reassure me that I still have a place here."

"I think we all need that from time to time." It was an honest answer. There were no people in the entire world that meant more to her than these people, Sasha included.

Andrea sidled up to the pair of women. "Sasha, I think you're jumping the gun. Look." She pointed toward the front door. Outside on Kara's porch a new figure had arrived. He stood on the other side of the glass storm door hugging Mike with one hand while in the other he held something that looked like a lumpy pillow. As they watched, the two men tipped their heads back in laughter while pointing at the unidentifiable object.

Ashley and Sam heard the laughter and looked up. "Dad!" Ashley's voice switched back from her usual disinterested teen's to an excited child's as she leapt from her seat and ran to the door.

"Kids, kids. There is enough of me to go around!" He barely made it through the door before they were both hugging him around either side of his waist. His bright eyes searched the gathering for Sasha.

Sasha hurried forward and leaned in for a quick kiss on the cheek, drawing a few whistles. Without acknowledging the uncharacteristic display of affection she took the plastic item from his hands. "Where on earth did you get a frozen turkey?" She exclaimed as the room burst into laughter.

"When it didn't get selected for pardon Oliver let me keep it. Maybe I'll tell you the whole story after you tell me why my insurance agent called me this morning to tell me you'd been in an accident. One that I knew nothing about." He looked questioningly between Sasha and Ashley, both of whom were trying to hide their expressions. Kara recognized the steely jaw, flinty eyes, and tense posture of Tom-the-Captain as Ashley dropped her gaze to the floor. Kara remembered what it felt like to be on that side of the coin all too well.

But Sasha was totally immune to his concern. "Oh, it's a long story too. Forget about all that stuff, get some pie, and just be thankful you're here."

Tom blushed a little, looking around at the small crowd of friends and family. When his gaze made it back around to Sasha his face softened. "Believe me, I am thankful I am here more than ever this year. And I know I have you all to thank, especially you."

Kara winked at the blushing Sasha. "I'm just going to get the coffee. Perhaps you two would like to put the turkey in the fridge?" She made haste to grab the pot and give them some alone time. "Ok you turkeys, time for coffee than you all go home so I can get up early and take my sleigh out to the big sales tomorrow!"

"Aw come on Kara!" Miller whined. "We haven't finished the game!"

Carleton rolled his eyes. "Miller, do you know nothing? You need to take your girl home before to gets too late."

Daisy ducked her had but a tiny smile played on her lips. "Well I am having a good time."

"Yeah but you need time to, you know, uh, hang out together." Cam implored, brows waggling.

"Besides, we're your ride and we want to get home before before my car turns back into a pumpkin." Ray added with a smirk.

Kat shrugged, "Probably be worth more that way."

Daisy giggled behind her hand and Kara caught the hopeful gaze she turned on Eric Eric. Kara couldn't help but think they really were perfect for each other. "You know what? Since we seem to have acquired an actual turkey, how about we all do this again tomorrow? Daisy, you are welcome to join us, even if you don't agree that Miller is a worth a second look. And everyone else, if you clean up so I can go check on my husband and sleep deprived son, I might even be able to scrounge up enough eggs for a pumpkin pie tomorrow."

She handed off the coffee pot and headed for the stairs. She didn't even stop when Mike started to assign cleaning tasks or when she heard Andrea say "Don't worry Cam, I'll do the turkey and Kat and Ashley can do the pies while they babysit Frankie in the morning. Kara will never even make it within ten feet of the oven."

Danny met her tiptoeing out of Frankie's room. "Is it too early for Christmas yet?"

She tugged on his beard. "Listen Santa. Mrs. Claus has an early morning if she's going to beat all the other elves to the-" He tossed her over his shoulder without any difficulty.

"What are you doing!"

She felt his grin against her hip. "You said it yourself. Mrs. Claus needs to get to bed right away." As she was bounced down the hallway she grinned to herself. There was certainly a lot to be thankful for this year.


End file.
